Tag Archives: health literacy

To say “I had a few questions” after learning I had a brain tumor is an understatement. Born on the cusp between Generation X and the Millennials, my instinctual response as a patient—after posting a hospital selfie to Instagram, of course—is to Google every new medical term I encounter. For the most part, I find […]

I recently attended a lecture by a high school English teacher on the topic of empowerment. She shared the results of an experiment she had done in her classroom where she tried to improve her students’ care and storage of notebook computers used during class. She described engaging her students by sharing with them how […]

Janette Bisbee is the education/project manager for The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s (HAP) Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN). Janette leads person and family engagement efforts at HAP, assisting member hospitals to operationalize person-and-family-centered care in their organizations. Janette has been a registered nurse for 25 years, and prior to joining HAP, spent the majority of her career in the field of long-term care. In addition to being an RN, Janette is a board certified gerontological nurse, and holds a Pennsylvania Nursing Home Administrator license.

One common thread connects all aspects of patient engagement: To truly engage patients, we must communicate with them in health-literate ways so they can be active participants in their own care. For written materials (digital or print), that means using the principles of plain language. While there is a lot written about the need to […]

Christopher Trudeau, JD, has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the UAMS Center for Health Literacy and as an associate professor of law at the UALR Bowen School of Law. Chris is an expert on health literacy, plain language and the law. His views are his own; they do not necessarily represent those of his employers. He may be reached at ctrudeau@uams.edu.

Providing patients and family caregivers with understandable health information might seem like common sense, but it’s not as common as you might think – and its impact on care has big implications when it comes to health outcomes and the cost of healthcare. The Institute of Medicine defines health literacy as “the degree to which […]

In my post last month about integrating health literacy within an organization, I wrote about using an organization’s own strategic planning to help make your case for integrating health literacy and patient engagement. Well, just a few days after I submitted that post, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), through its own […]

Christopher Trudeau, JD, has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the UAMS Center for Health Literacy and as an associate professor of law at the UALR Bowen School of Law. Chris is an expert on health literacy, plain language and the law. His views are his own; they do not necessarily represent those of his employers. He may be reached at ctrudeau@uams.edu.

Picture this: you are speaking to a group of leaders in a health system. They aren’t on their smartphones answering emails; they are engaged, interested and listening to every word you say. How great would that feel? I know; I know. This is not reality. So the question becomes, how do you engage these decision-makers […]

Christopher Trudeau, JD, has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the UAMS Center for Health Literacy and as an associate professor of law at the UALR Bowen School of Law. Chris is an expert on health literacy, plain language and the law. His views are his own; they do not necessarily represent those of his employers. He may be reached at ctrudeau@uams.edu.

What do health literacy, health communication, shared decision-making, patient education and patient engagement have in common? They all focus on the individual patient being an essential part of the healthcare system, which is a step in the right direction, given the paternalistic past of healthcare. Too often, these fields are seen as distinct efforts, each […]

Christopher Trudeau, JD, has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the UAMS Center for Health Literacy and as an associate professor of law at the UALR Bowen School of Law. Chris is an expert on health literacy, plain language and the law. His views are his own; they do not necessarily represent those of his employers. He may be reached at ctrudeau@uams.edu.

The recent emphasis on patient-centered care places a demand for quality information on both sides of the medical relationship. Physicians and nurses are tasked with communicating effectively in ever-smaller time segments. Patients must describe their symptoms and treatment progress and ask any pertinent questions in the same shrinking time frame. Additionally, some patients must work […]

Barb Jones is a health sciences librarian with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, MidContinental Region. She is the Missouri coordinator and represents the six-state MidContinental Region as library advocacy project coordinator. Her work experience includes clinical librarianship in both hospital and clinic settings as well as program development, teaching and training in academic settings. She is particularly interested in developing new roles for librarians including patient safety and knowledge management, library assessment and evaluation, and advocacy issues. Barb has a master’s degree in library science from the University of Arizona. She is based at and serves on the library staff at the J. Otto Lottes Health Science Library at the University of Missouri.

In an earlier post, we discussed how patients might feel stupid when faced with a medical crisis. Medical professionals can help patients feel knowledgeable and reverse that feeling, which will increase patient satisfaction and improve the organization’s bottom line. Today, patients are smarter and better informed than ever before. Access to information—reliable or not—is as […]

RANDI REDMOND OSTER is founder and president of Help Me HealthTM, whose mission is to transform how healthcare thinks about the patient experience to improve outcomes and the bottom line. She is also the author of Questioning Protocol, which helps patients navigate the healthcare system and medical professionals understand the patient perspective. Randi spent the first 18 years of her career at GE working on complex aerospace systems and building profitable financial services businesses. Skills she gained at GE empowered her to effectively navigate the healthcare system for her son, find opportunities for process improvements for hospitals and launch Help Me Health.
KATHLEEN CATTRALL is chief experience officer of Help Me Health. She is a customer experience trailblazer credited with establishing new standards and methods for companies dogged by customer challenges. She believes that the experiences customers have with companies have economic value in the same way that a company’s products have value. Her reputation as a subject matter expert in the customer experience space makes her a sought-after contributor to Forrester Research white papers, for blogs and as a speaker.

Randi Oster and Kathleen Cattrall has
1 post(s) at EngagingPatients.org

How do we improve patient satisfaction and experience while reducing overall healthcare costs? Create knowledgeable patients. As reported in Modern Healthcare, a study published in 2013 found that patients who feel they have the “knowledge, skills and confidence to make healthy choices and informed medical decisions were less costly than those who felt they lacked […]

Randi Redmond Oster is author of Questioning Protocol, which helps patients navigate the healthcare system and medical professionals understand the patient perspective. She is a nationally acclaimed speaker on healthcare reform, shared decision-making and patient engagement.
Randi spent approximately 20 years working at GE on complex aerospace systems and building profitable financial services businesses. She received a Black Belt in Six Sigma Quality and numerous leadership awards. The skills she gained at GE empowered her to effectively navigate the healthcare system and find opportunities for process improvements as she advocated in hospitals on behalf of her chronically ill son.
Randi is president of Help Me Health, a business focused on the transformation of how healthcare thinks about and delivers patient experiences to achieve better outcomes and a better bottom line.